“Finish it” is not a plan: The Project Plan Conundrum

Today’s blog is about a strange concept called a “Project Plan” or a “Sales Plan.” I have no formal training in this topic unless you realize that my experience in research design is surprisingly relevant. So here goes.

These ‘plans’ are fluffy and you cannot measure fluff. Try measuring the ‘fluffiness’ of this pretty kitty. You can even borrow my ruler.
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On the other hand, this IS a project plan. It has tasks, names, dates, and it’s written down. And, it’s often many, many pages long once you list out every task in a project.

Break entire project into specific tasks by end of day tomorrow. A task is something like “write a case study,” or “design the cover page.” Of course, you could get even more specific and list “decide on a case study topic” as one of the tasks.

Assign specific tasks to specific people with specific deadlines by end of day tomorrow. Specifically, John must complete this task by Friday at 10am.

Meet Monday and Thursday for 15 minutes to see which tasks are on or behind schedule.

Reassign people to tasks to accounts for lags

Add in new tasks with dates and people as tasks are discovered.

Update your written down plan with any changes. WRITE IT DOWN

These are NOT sales plans.

Make a lot of sales

Sell $50 000 this year

Grow our sales as much as possible

Talk to a lot of people on the internet

earl53 from morguefile
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This IS a sales plan. It has numbers, dates, sources, and it is written down.

LinkIn with 10 new potential contacts every single day

Interact with at least 10 potential clients on Twitter every single day

Discuss your product in detail with 5 potential clients every single day

Demonstrate your product to at least 1 potential client every single day

Find 1 new relevant conference every month, whether to attend/present/network around

Write down which goals were met and not met every single day

If you want to be successful, you need to define what success is and measure it.

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Hi and welcome!

I'm a market research methodologist who blogs about sampling, surveys, statistics, charts, and more. I also like to live blog conferences I speak at. My goal is to keep research real, current, and fun. I approve and post every single comment that makes it through my spam filter, usually within 24 hours.